People of several flood-hit localities in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area poured out their woes to the five-member Central team, visiting the State to assess the damage left behind by the recent rains and floods, on Thursday.
Of the five members of the visiting team, a three-member team led by Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Praveen Vashista visited several inundated colonies, inspected houses, roads, bridges and tanks damaged in the floods and also examined the restoration works taken up. The remaining two members went to nearby Siddipet district to assess the crop and other damage caused by rains.
The team first visited the road over bridge damaged in the Chandrayangutta-Falaknuma area and the nearby localities inundated by flood. They interacted with the flood-affected people to have first-hand knowledge on the impact of flood and examined the restoration works there, including desiltation of nala.
Several residents of the area explained to the Central team that the flood water reached up to the first floor of houses after submerging the ground floor completely and the murky water and muck was still around even 10 days after flooding. Walls of their houses were damaged badly as they were soaked in water for over 10 days now.
Commissioner of GHMC D.S. Lokesh Kumar and Chief Engineer of GHMC Jiauddin informed the Central team that heavy flow of water in the seven-metre wide nala after the breach of Palle Cheruvu tank had damaged the retaining walls of the bridges badly and inundated several residential areas downstream with water flowing up to a height of five meters on the roads.
The Central team then examined the restoration works of nala near Kandikal gate and interacted with flood-affected people in Phoolbagh area in Chadrayangutta. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi met the team and explained that flood water had flowed up to 10 ft height in the area causing heavy damage to property.
During the visit to Balapur and Hafeezbaba Nagar areas, flood-affected people explained to the Central team that furniture and other household belongings were completely damaged in the muck that covered their houses after the breach of Palle Cheruvu and Gurram Cheruvu tanks and the intensity of flood had also led to collapse of walls. Mr. Vashista of the Central team suggested to the GHMC officials to focus on strengthening the tanks as a permanent measure to prevent recurrence of flooding and inundation.
At Gurram Cheruvu and Palle Cheruvu tanks, the Central team examined temporary restoration works to plug the breaches. Before winding up their field visit the Central team examined the breach plugging work at Appa Cheruvu at Gaganpahad. GHMC officials explained to the team that the intensity of flood had washed away several two-wheelers and four-wheelers parked in the residential colonies in the area after the breach of Appa Cheruvu.
Secretary Disaster Management Rahul Bojja, District Collector of Hyderabad Sweta Mohanty, Charminar Zonal Commissioner Ashok Samrat and others accompanied the Central team during the visit.
